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Welcome! Artfully Musing is a blog dedicated to sharing art and the techniques and products used. I'll be showcasing collage, altered and mixed media art as well as miniature. I hope you'll check back often and are inspired. Thanks for visiting! Laura

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

I
thought I would start easing into the Halloween season with two Alchemy themed
projects. Both feature altering books where I've used egg shells to create a texture on the cover of the books.

The
first altered book features a dragon’s eye surrounded by its scales. Two holes cut into the pages on the side of
the book, accommodatesmall
tins filled with tiny bottles containing substances the alchemist would
use in their quest to transmute elements into gold. Faux suede cord wrapped around the book keeps
the dragon contained and the tins in place.

By
folding and cutting the pages in the book, you can create architecture. Inside the book is distilling equipment made
from bottles, a working hourglass and all kinds of bottles, bowls, candles, a
scale and weights and other items that would outfit and alchemist’s workshop.

NEW ALCHEMY THEMED
COLLAGE SHEETS

Almost
all of the images I’ve used on the books are from two new alchemy themed
collage sheets. The sheets are loaded
with alchemy charts, architectural elements, bottles, distilling equipment,
books, dragons and more.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Recently
I redecorated a guest bedroom and needed more artwork for the walls. I created these three pieces that I
framed. Each piece is 8” x 10”5. I thought maybe others would like to use them,
either to frame or as part of a project.
Feel free to save the images for your personal use.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

It’s another
glorious day at the main square in Steamtown.
The astrolabe is a popular place to gather. Looks like a man with a steam powered back
pack is ready to take off and there is a boy on a bicycle who is launching into
the air.

You can also see two young girls riding around on a steam powered Victorian version of the Segway.

Out in
the suburbs of Steamtown a drama is unfolding behind an innocent looking Victorian
façade.

In the
library, Henry and George await the return of their colleague Roger. Unbeknownst to the men, something else has
moved forward in time. Not to worry as Amelia
makes short work of the problem using her trusty umbrella, dispatching the
creature to the year 2015, where it is now staring in a movie titled “Jurassic
World”.

On the
walls of the library are pictures of some of the lovely ladies of Steamtown.

In addition
to the two Steampunk themed projects there is a new “Time Machine” collage
sheet and digital image set. Most of the
images you’ll see in the new project come from these new image sets and also
from my other recent Voyages
Extraordinaires image sets.

In the
post below I’ll walk you through how I created each piece and have included the
list of supplies I used.

This
digital kit includes all of the images on the collage sheet and some unique to
the kit. There are 58 images in total
with 24 images that are in a small and large size.

Digital
files can be resized, rotated or flipped as needed. The files are in a .png format. PNG formatted
files have a transparent background
making it easy to layer an image over other digital images. You can open .png files using graphic
programs like Photoshop Elements.
Digital collage sheets and digital images can be saved to your computer
and printed as many times as you wish.

To
create the clock patina, I started by applying a rust treatment to the
clock. I’m not going to cover the rust treatment
in this tutorial as I have two other tutorials devoted to this patina technique. If you missed them they are:

In the center
of the clock is the astrolabe. I used
gears from the Steampunk Shape Set – Hot Air Balloon and a clock from the Steampunk
Shapes Set – Hats for the 3 center pieces.
The larger outside piece is made from multiple layers of paper cut to
fit inside the hole in the clock. I used
the hole of the clock as the guide for size.
The trick is to find pieces that fit snugly inside the other piece. Each piece is glued in place (with E6000) at
an angle to the previous piece.

You can
see in the pictures how I have attached the optometrist glass mechanical piece
to the clock. The main reason I used the
brass leaves was to give me a surface to attach the piece to the clock without
getting glue on the glass.

To the
handle of the optometrist glass I added a watch hand that goes through the
astrolabe and is decorated with a small sun disk from my stash.

To the
base I added a chipboard key (from the Shapes Set) and brass gear.
At the bottom of the clock I added wood swirls and a piece of filigree.

The
balloon is made from the Steampunk Shape Set – Hot Air Balloons. The paper behind the balloon and the banner
on the front is from the Sweet Paris 8x8 paper set.

At the
top of the balloon and on the basket, I added brass gears, a clock button and a key. The basket and balloon are connected using
eye pins glued to the backs of each piece.
Other options are string, thread, toothpicks or ribbons. Hanging from the bottom of the basket is a
piece of Dresden from my stash.

At the top of the umbrellas is a wooden light bulb, a fuse from
theTime Machine collage sheet, ahitch fastener and
abronze hand. I
trimmed the bottom of the light bulb so it would fit into the hole in a
rondelle. I thenfolded a bail and
glued it into the hole in the hand. The bail gave me a way of attaching
the gizmo to the umbrellas.

For the
gizmo that comes off the back of the bike, I started by gluing a beehive box foot to
a metal gear. I used the box foot as it
will fit over a piece of the swirl so that I can attach the gizmo to the
bike. I used the gear to give me
something to glue the bottle to.

To the
open end of the bottle I attached the brass and spinner piece that I previously
assembled.

Lastly
I glued the bottle to the box foot and brass gear and then glued the box foot
over the a piece of the swirl at the back of the bike.

Next,
used a pair of chipboard wings from the Shapes Set to serve as a seat or place
to stand.

At the
top of the handle bar I attached a scissor charm to server as hand holds (the
blades of the scissors fit nicely on each side of the handle bar) , a beehive
box foot and a pair of binoculars.

I then
added more stuff! More gears to the top
on the handle bar with a hitch fastener, in the bottom middle a handle turn and
on the front wheel a brass propeller and bead.
I also added a gear on the back side handle bar and a gear on the back
side of the back wheel.

For the
time machine, I printed the image twice.
One of the images I used as the main image and the other one I cutout
pieces of the image that I popped up from the main image to create depth. I cutout a piece of the door and attached the
dinosaur to the back of the door.

You can
below how the pipes, gauges and door with dinosaur are attached.

To add
further dimension I added Glossy Accents to the gauges to give them a domed and
glassy appearance.

Also
note how I added the handle and gear to the pipes. To create the space for them I used several
layers of double stick foam tape to pop the time machine out from the wall.

For the
dinosaur, I used multiple layers of double stick foam tape behind the right
side of the door (only) so that the left side is flush with the time machine
and the right side is popped out. This
makes it look like the dinosaur is pushing the door open on the right but the
door is still on its hinge on the left.

When I
cutout Amelia I cut away the walking stick that is in her hand. I glued the miniature umbrella behind her
body and hand, then used a fine point black pen to widen the part of the
stick that goes across the skirt of her dress to match the width of the
umbrella shaft.

DINOSAUR

Below
is the dinosaur image I used. Feel free
to download the image and use it in your art.
It is sized to fit the dinosaur is sized to fit the time machine on the
collage sheet or the large one in the digital image set.

The
final touch was to add the men. Also
note that I used the same curtains that are on the lid side of the box.

The Victorian
façade is from the Time Machine digital image set. I printed it twice with one copy being
reversed. I glued one copy to a piece of
lightweight chipboard and cut it out.
Next, I cutout the other copy and glued it to the back of the
chipboard. The reason for reversing one
of the copies is that the façade is not perfectly symmetrical so if you don’t
reverse the second image they won’t fit together as well.

For the
astrolabe at the top of the house I started by bending an ornament hook. Note in the picture below that the second
hook is the one that is bent and the first is how it looked before
bending.

To the
hook I attached a brass gear and a clock button. I attached a button to the back as well.

The
other pieces of the astrolabe are a clock from the Steampunk Shapes Set – Hats and
a white ring that I painted a copper color and then brushed with Patina Gilders
Paste.

I then
glued the hook into the ring at an angle.
You can now see why I bent the hook to make it larger so that it would
fit snugly inside the ring. Next, I
glued the ring inside the clock.

On each
side of the clock I attached memo pins.
I poked the pins through the top of the façade to hold the astrolabe in
place.

Below the astrolabe is a gizmo piece from the Time Machine collage sheet. I used Gloss Accents to make each of the gauges
pop and small copper beads to dress up the gizmo and to hide the small white
areas that were too small to cutout.

To give
the façade more dimension, I printed a third version of the façade and cutout
most of the windows and doors, attaching them to the façade with double stick
foam tape to pop them up.